


Can't Help (Falling In Love With You)

by Huntress79



Category: Black Panther (2018), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Happy Ending, Mutual Pining (sort of), Nerds in Love, Pining Bucky Barnes, Requited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-10
Packaged: 2020-08-14 11:21:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20191438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/pseuds/Huntress79
Summary: He still can’t fathom why him, of all people, and with her (again, of all people), but Bucky Barnes knows one thing for sure – he’s head over heels in love with Wakanda’s beautiful, young princess.





	Can't Help (Falling In Love With You)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kereia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kereia/gifts).

> Written for [Pining Exchange](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/piningexchange2019) and for [kereia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kereia/pseuds/kereia). I tried to work some of your chosen tags and prompts into the story. Hope you like it! Starts after “Endgame”, but with no real spoilers.

*********************

Bucky Barnes was in love.

Which, on one hand, was probably the best thing that could have happened to him, after all the bad things over the past seven decades or so. And which he would have accepted with open arms under different circumstances.

If only for one game-changer.

Said game-changer was currently standing across the yard of the Starks’ home, thanking Pepper for the wonderful service they had for Tony and repeating what pretty much everyone had already told the widow – that she should not hesitate to reach out to them in times of need. As Bucky watched on, the object of his desire crouched down to be on eye-level with Morgan, Tony and Pepper’s little daughter and brought some laughter to both mother and child with some cute holograms coming out of her kimoyo beads bracelet. Before she pulled away at last, she handed a similar bracelet to both Pepper and Morgan, which both women took with different levels of hesitation.

“Now I see why I can’t get you to roommate with me, pal,” Sam Wilson suddenly piped up from the side, and Bucky only could thank the literal decades of being used to remain still for NOT jumping at hearing the voice.

“You think so, Cap?” Bucky drawled back, laying an extra emphasis on Sam’s new “title”.

“Sure, Barnes,” he clapped Bucky on his flesh shoulder, “but know that my door is always open, just in case you should decide otherwise.”

Bucky was momentarily taken aback. For a guy who for so long made no secret of loathing him for so many things, Sam Wilson definitely did a 180 right now. Apparently, dying and coming back to the land of the living had this kind of side effect.

“White Wolf?”

The soft, yet firm voice of Okoye broke through Bucky’s current train of thought, and he had to shake his head to really come back to the reality.

“Yeah, Okoye?”

“We’re ready to go, if you want to come with us.”

“Sure,” he bent down to retrieve his meager belongings, only to find it gone and in the hands of another Dora Milaje member. Shrugging, he turned back to Sam, who watched the whole thing with a fond smile. “See you around, Wilson. And if you can’t handle that one,” he pointed to the shield leaning on Sam’s shin, “give me a call.”

The two men shook hands, and while Sam was sputtering about his implication, Bucky got into the car – only to be met with the amused gaze of one Princess Shuri, the woman solely responsible for his coming around after everything, his new arm, and, unbeknownst to her, for the initially mentioned thing called “being in love”.

“You couldn’t help yourself, Sergeant?” she inquired around a smile.

“Nope,” Bucky gave back, a similar smile on his lips, “ever since you straightened my brain,” he tapped the side of his head for emphasis, “I enjoy doing things like that. And from what Steve had told me, Sam is just the perfect target for this kind of fun.”

Bucky ended his small explanation with a wink at her, which sent Shuri for another laughing fit. And God damn it, if that wasn’t the most beautiful sound this Earth had to offer!

“So, what’s the plan, your Highness?” Bucky asked once her laughter died down a bit. “Besides returning home? And getting somewhat like a system back into daily lives?”

“As if you wouldn’t know it, White Wolf – getting back to my projects! I have five years to catch up!”

“I might have an inkling about that, but I wanted to hear it from you, just to be sure,” Bucky retorted, and in the same moment he saw Okoye’s second in command rolling her eyes, though the soft smile on her face belied that motion a bit.

*********************

True to her word, Shuri all but fled to her lab once the whole welcoming ceremony was over, leaving Bucky with a strange mixture of feelings. Sure, he knew that, like everyone else who was snapped (and quite a lot of who were left behind), she had to come to terms with the fact that she had died, was brought back by some technical miracle, only to learn that five years had passed.

“You okay, White Wolf?”

The deep baritone of M’Baku cut into Bucky’s thoughts, and only now did he notice the Jabari leader standing next to him. Instead of a verbal answer, he only motioned to the empty chair to his left, which M’Baku immediately accepted.

“What’s troubling that mind of yours?”

“Nothing. Or everything.” Bucky finally locked gazes with the mountain man. “I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I died and came back for a second time.” M’Baku nodded, and from what Okoye had told him during the flight back to Wakanda, Bucky also knew that the chief of the Jabari tribe had lost almost all his family in the snap, while he found himself in the surviving half. It was probably just as hard for him as for Bucky.

“But you’re also worried about our princess, right?” There was no trace of accusation or allegation in the man’s voice, just simply stating an observation.

“Yeah, but she’s young, and she most likely comes around faster than any of us.”

All of a sudden, M’Baku’s eyes widened in surprise, and a broad smile spread on his face.

“Oh, you’re in love with her!” he all but shouted, and Bucky couldn’t help but cringe. It was one thing to have this certain thought circling in the relative safety of his head, but hearing it spoken out loud? Not so good at all.

Fortunately, T’Challa and Ramonda were far enough away from him to hear it, despite M’Baku’s booming voice. Bucky was sure that neither her brother nor her mother would be delighted by the thought that a guy three times older than Shuri had more than friendship feelings for her.

“No,” Bucky began with a deep sigh, “I’m not. And even if I was, I wouldn’t stand a chance against the king or her mother.” Another deep sigh. “And to be completely honest, I like it here way too much as to risk it all on a stupid feeling.”

“No, my friend, you’re wrong on that.” M’Baku paused, apparently thinking about something. “Don’t you white people have a saying that goes along the lines of ‘Love Conquers All’?” Without waiting for Bucky to react in any way, the large man leaned in. “If I were you, my friend, I would risk it all, if only to see if she maybe has the same feelings for you. It’s worth a shot, at least to me, and if T’Challa and Ramonda should ask you to leave, I’ll gladly grant you asylum with our tribe.”

With that, the Jabari got up and left, leaving Bucky even more bewildered than before, if that even was possible. Knowing that he only would get headache if he kept mulling about both his feelings and M’Baku’s words, he bid T’Challa and the others a good night before retreating to “his” hut by the lake.

*********************

Fortunately for Bucky, it didn’t take long for Sam to take him up on his offer. With a new, improved shield, Bucky flew back to the States, and between the two of them, they quickly solved the problem, way too quick for his liking. While waiting for Sam to finish up with the debriefing at the new compound, Bucky contemplated to ask him for some advice, but in the end, he decided against. Sam Wilson was a good guy, better than Bucky initially had thought, but he couldn’t dump something as trivial as that on him, not when the other man still tried to figure out how to combine both his Falcon and his new Cap identity.

After that, he tried to avoid running into Shuri as much as possible. Unintentionally, Okoye and her Dora Milaje helped in some way, as they came up with a training that benefitted both his left arm and his “soldier senses”, as Okoye called it. All the training that he received both at the Army and Hydra still had something good to offer, and if he wanted to assist Sam in a future mission, he needed to keep his senses sharp.

But like all things, even this “plan” had to come to an end, even if Bucky didn’t want it to happen. He and Okoye were backup for T’Challa on a recon mission when the bad guys they were observing got the drop on them. Fortunately, they both came out of it without any serious injury, but still, T’Challa and his doctors ordered them to stay at the infirmary overnight. Already feeling the cottoning effects of the pain medication, Bucky didn’t even consider to protest.

And so, he was greeted with the smiling face of Shuri when he woke up in the morning.

“Hey, stranger,” she quipped, her eyes shining with joy at seeing him.

“Hey,” Bucky croaked, his throat parched. In a heartbeat, Shuri held a straw to his lips while encouraging him to take a sip with her expressive eyes. Even if he wanted, Bucky couldn’t help but comply.

Slowly but steady, he finished the whole cup, and only then, Shuri put the cup down and grabbed his flesh hand.

“You gave me quite a scare, White Wolf,” she finally spoke up, “when my brother radioed the incident in, stating that both you and Okoye were somewhat unconscious. Fortunately, both of you came around rather quick, but still…,” she trailed off.

Despite having slept already enough, Bucky felt a new wave of fatigue creeping up on him. He valiantly tried to stay awake just a little more, but in the end, sleep won the “fight” and he slipped under, hearing her whispering in his ear something that sounded a lot like “Don’t ever do this to me again”.

*********************

When Bucky woke up again, Shuri was gone, and in her place one of the doctors was sitting. In some quick words, she told him that the arm apparently hadn’t taken any damage, which was something they were afraid of somehow, and that he was free to leave the infirmary at any time.

He probably would never be able to explain it, not even to himself, but instead of heading back to his hut, Bucky found himself standing in front of Shuri’s lab, watching her doing her magic on a device. T’Challa also was there, and even through the glass, Bucky could see that while the king valiantly tried to follow her rapid-fire explanations about the device, he only could resort to plastering a fond smile on his face instead.

At last, Shuri looked up, and the way her eyes lit up at seeing him standing there warmed Bucky to the furthest corner of his body. After so many decades of being denied even the slightest kind of human interaction, he felt overjoyed at being loved so unconditionally by so many people. It was a strange thing in the beginning, but by now, he was somewhat used to get a hug from some random villagers, just because they could and wanted to do so.

T’Challa motioned for him to join them, and in no time, Bucky was also swept in her explanations. Still, he managed to surprise her when he suggested a different approach to a problem she was trying to solve in the first place.

“How did you know that anyway, Bucky?” Shuri asked afterwards.

“I always had a knack for engineering and that stuff, had dreamed of becoming an engineer myself, but then the war happened…” he trailed off, unwilling to go down this particular memory lane.

“Did you ever think about picking some light studies?” Shuri inquired with a soft voice.

“Me? Nah, not anymore. I mean, I know that I can look things up on the internet at any given time, but somehow, I’m content with what I have here – my hut, my goats, the lake, the simple life. Don’t get me wrong, I love being here, watching you doing your magic with technology, but…”

“…you rather want it simple, right?” Shuri finished for him.

“Yeah, something like that. I can control them easier than complicated things.” He saw her nodding, which encouraged him to continue. “Sure, I still want to increase that level of simplicity, but if possible not too fast.”

“Very understandable, Bucky. But there’s two things I need to know as well,” Shuri said with as much earnestness as possible in her voice, causing Bucky to look at her with a slightly alarmed expression. Bingo.

“Sure… what… what do you want to know?”

“First: would you be okay if I consult you from time to time. You have such a different background compared to me, so you might have…” She trailed off upon seeing him holding up a hand. “What?”

“I’d really like to do that, but please, Shuri, ask the thing you really want to know.” At her quizzical look, Bucky continued. “You seem to forget that I have pretty much every tactical possibility known to man ingrained in my brain.” She nodded. “So don’t beat around the bush,” he finished with a wink.

“Alright,” Shuri began, then stopped to take a deep breath, as if she was steeling herself. “Why were you avoiding me, pretty much ever since we came back from Stark’s funeral? Except for the day and a half you were in the infirmary, we hardly saw each other.” She punched him lightly on the metal arm. “I was used to have you around me, to seeing you almost every day. But recently, you actively made sure NOT to cross my ways.”

“What does your brain tells you about it?” Bucky challenged. She was good, and he was this close to spill it all out, but on the other hand, he didn’t want to give in all too easily.

“That I have done something, or said something that has caused that…” Any further explanation fell flat when Bucky began to laugh, a full-fledged laugh, something that Shuri hadn’t seen on him before, but what made him even more attractive to her. “What’s so funny, White Wolf?”

“Believe me, princess, you didn’t do nothing wrong.” He sobered up and locked his gaze with hers. “I… I have certain feelings for you, Shuri, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to contain myself around you, and subsequently derail everything I have built up here…”

Bucky didn’t get any farther, mostly due to the fact that Shuri closed the distance between them and kissed him in a way that made his toes curl. Sadly, she ended the kiss way too soon for his liking, leaned back and looked up at him.

“For a guy that old you’re pretty slow with catching up, Bucky.”

“Why?”

“Because I tried to give you like a ton of signals, but you either didn’t notice them at all, or you misinterpreted them as purely friendship things.” She heaved a sigh. “Do you know how frustrating that can be?”

“I apologize, your Highness. Is there any way to redeem myself?”

“Oh, I think I can come up with some ideas.”

And with that, she led him out of the lab and back to her quarters at the palace.

*********************

**The End**

*********************


End file.
